Ruminations on the differences in rad vents

da13ear

Hivemind,

Spent some time reading your comments on the different Rad vents out there. For residential, vent-rites appeared to be the far and away winners and varivalve the losers.

I have a bunch of varivalves, swapped 3 for vent-rites on my smaller bedroom rads, and was immediately impressed by how quiet the operated, so it has piqued my curiosity.

Can someone help me understand some of the following:
-Why are the vents with the tongues (vent-rite) preferred over the the ones without (ie varivalve). I read mention of the tongues separating the water from the steam.
-Why are the ventrite type of vents so much quieter?
-Why is venting the rads slowly better than fast?
-Does venting the rads slowly somehow reduce expansion/contraction sounds?
-Are there any downsides to the ventrite type of vents?
-Should i put ventrites on my larger living room rads (which are earlier in the system as well)?

Thank so much as always folks!

Chris

delcrossv

varivent? do you mean a heat-timer Vari-valve?

Just my opinion, but vari-valve vs. ventrite is more of a "horses for courses" proposition. Most of the time you don't need a very aggressive vent like the vari-valve, but sometimes you do.

I haven't noticed a difference between vents with tongues (or tubes for that matter) and those without. Radiator vents should never see condensate in the first place. If they do, the system pressure is too high.

Ventrites are quieter because they're slower. (probably). I manage a system that has vents from Gorton 4's to varivalves and none of them make noise. Again, check your pressures.

My understanding is that you want to vent radiators as slowly as feasible so that radiators earlier on the line do not vent so fast that they steal steam from rads further down the line. I've experienced this myself.

I'm not sure about expansion sounds- in the radiators?

Your last two questions are specific to your system. Are the big rads overheating? (heating just long the tops rather than section by section?)

da13ear

Thanks for the feedback Del. You hit the nail on the head. I am comparing varivalves vs vent-rites. Fixed the original message.

Regarding system pressure, I'll keep an eye on it to see where it goes while firing.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Basically you want the largest main vents and radiator vents on a system to get the steam where it wants to go with no delay pushing air out

But there are limits to everything

too fast especially with pipe that is pitched wrong can cause banging and water hammer. Same thing with radiation especially with the large ones.

And you have to balance everything